Real-World Assets Lead Crypto Trends in 2025: CoinGecko Reports Significant Growth

In a recent report, CoinGecko, a prominent data aggregator, has highlighted the key narratives shaping the cryptocurrency landscape in 2025, with Real-World Assets (RWAs) taking the lead due to substantial returns.

Key Takeaways

RWAs Show Remarkable Growth: Real-World Assets have achieved an average price return of 185.8% year-to-date (YTD), with key tokens like Figure Heloc, Chainlink, Stellar, Tether Gold, and BlackRock’s BUIDL driving this success.
Layer-1 Solutions Perform Well: Layer-1 (L1) solutions have gained 80.3% YTD, mainly due to privacy-focused cryptocurrencies, including Zcash and Monero.
Struggles for Meme Coins and AI Tokens: Despite their popularity, meme tokens and AI-focused cryptocurrencies have faced significant losses, with average returns of -31.6% and -50.2% YTD, respectively.
Decentralized Finance Faces Challenges: The decentralized finance (DeFi) sector has also struggled, with average returns of -34.8% YTD.

Crypto

RWAs: The Driving Force Behind Crypto Market Growth

The report emphasizes that RWAs have emerged as a prominent narrative in 2025, achieving an impressive average price return of 185.8% YTD across notable tokens such as Figure Heloc, Chainlink (LINK), Stellar (XLM), Tether Gold (XAUT), and BlackRock’s BUIDL.

The growth in the RWA sector can be traced back to the performance of certain platforms. For instance, Keeta Network has soared by a staggering 1,794.9% YTD, while Zebec Network and Maple Finance have seen gains of 217.3% and 123.0%, respectively.

Currently, the crypto RWA sector has a Distributed Asset Value of $18.88 billion, reflecting a 2.56% increase over the past month. However, the Represented Asset Value has slightly declined to $407.93 billion, down 2.36%.

To provide context, RWAs facilitate asset managers by promoting the digital transformation of tangible assets, including real estate and commodities. This innovation creates a robust foundation for trading, managing, and securing these assets.

Layer-1 Solutions Show Positive Performance

Layer-1 (L1) solutions have emerged as the second-most profitable narrative this year, recording an average price gain of 80.3% YTD. This positive outcome is primarily linked to the strong performance of privacy-centric blockchains like Zcash and Monero, which have experienced rallies of 691.3% and 143.6%, respectively.

Another notable narrative, "Made in USA," is also set to finish the year on a high note, achieving average gains of 30.6% YTD, largely due to Zcash's performance and its ability to mitigate some losses among other tokens.

Challenges for Meme Tokens and AI Investments

Despite their widespread appeal, narratives involving memecoins and artificial intelligence (AI) have faced challenges this year, posting average returns of -31.6% and -50.2% YTD, respectively.

Prominent memecoins like Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) illustrate the highly volatile nature of this sector, suffering notable declines of over 60% year-to-date. Similarly, AI-focused cryptocurrencies have witnessed significant drops, with declines ranging from 49.8% to 84.3%, though Alchemist AI and Kite have performed relatively better.

Moreover, decentralized finance (DeFi) entities have had a tough year, reporting average returns of -34.8%, consistent with the losses seen in the memecoins sector. The decentralized exchange (DEX) narrative also mirrors this downturn, with average losses of -55.5%, while layer-2 (L2) solutions have continued to struggle, reporting average returns of -40.6% for the second consecutive year.

Crypto

The daily chart above illustrates the downward trend Bitcoin (BTC) has experienced in recent months. As of now, Bitcoin trades at $88,960, having recorded a 10% loss year-to-date.

Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com.